Did you see the story in the NYT today about the oh-so-serious and, let’s face it, competitive home cooks? Talk about taking the fun out of cooking!

The story, “Dinner at the Foodies’: Purslane and Anxiety,” tells the tale of food-obsessed people and their drive to make sure their food is just so for their equally food conscious dinner guests. Trouble is (a) it stresses out some of the cooks and (b) some cooks get so good at the game that no one wants to cook for them any more.

Sounds to me as if those cooks lost their way along the line. What happened to the pleasure of sharing a meal-even if it’s peanut butter and jelly-for its own sake, not to mention for the sake of conversation and camaraderie?

I’m not saying that there are no standards or that all cooking styles and ingredients are equally good and equally valid. In fact, I don’t believe that. The standards that should matter, though, aren’t from some currently anointed expert.

Rather, the most important standards are those of a caring cook, one who aims to serve his or her guests the very best meal possible from the freshest, most desirable ingredients available. The cook’s own interpretation and tastes and imagination flavor such a feast.

Remember “Babette’s Feast”? Remember “Big Night”? Yes, the cooks aimed for perfection, but only by one person’s standards: the cook’s. The result was fabulous and personal cuisine that provided communion among the diners in a way that no self-conscious, “let’s be Alice Waters” meal ever could.

Salut.